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Hubert H. Humphrey Digitization Project

This is the ninth installment of our NHPRC funded project to digitize
Hubert H. Humphrey's speech texts. This month we focus on the first half
of 1968, a year of great challenge for Vice President Humphrey and the
nation.

"In January 1968 there were 492,900 American men and women at war in
Vietnam. Nearly seventeen thousand of their compatriots had already died
there. President Johnson had only 48 per cent approval in the Gallup Poll,
Gene McCarthy had announced for the presidency, and Bob Kennedy, waiting
in the wings, had not" (Education of a Public Man, p. 264).

On January 30, 1968 the Vietnamese New Year celebration of Tet
was encroached upon by a massive attack from the North Vietnamese and the
Viet Cong against the South Vietnamese and American forces. The
administration, continually promoting an optimistic view of the war,
experienced a huge loss of credibility. In this TV interview with the United
Press International Humphrey answered questions from the panel about the
nature of this brutal offensive and the administration's reaction to it,
saying that he sensed a "steeling of the American attitude, that is a
fixing of our desire" to see the war through.

In
February of 1968 the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,
commonly known as the Kerner Commission, released its report concluding
that frustration and lack of economic opportunity were the cause of the
1967 riots. It included the famous phrase "our nation is moving toward two
societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal." Humphrey
confronted these findings in this speech at a National Housing Conference dinner on March 4th. He
tried to explain how the administration had actually been doing a lot to
combat this huge domestic problem, but that it also needed support at the
neighborhood level.

In March
Bobby Kennedy joined the presidential race after Eugene McCarthy took 46
percent of the New Hampshire primary vote against Lyndon Johnson. In this
ABC TV program Humphrey was
questioned about the administration's answer to the Kennedy candidacy and
whether or not President Johnson would run again. Humphrey replied that he
thought it highly likely the president would run for another term.

By the end of the month, however, Humphrey received confidential
information from the President that Johnson would deliver a speech the
night of March 31st during which he might possibly announce that he would
not be seeking another term. Left out of the loop, Humphrey would not know
until he could listen to the speech, which inconveniently occurred during
the middle of a United States Embassy dinner in Mexico City with President
Gustavo Diaz Ortiz.

Humphrey recalled later that when Johnson announced he would indeed not
seek another term, Humphrey's wife Muriel "was very shaken and emotionally
upset. To say the least, I felt the same way. I resolved however to say
little or nothing except to commend the President in my toast at the
dinner" (Hubert Humphrey: A Biography, p. 322).

In a speech at the Gardner Cowles
dinner a few days after Johnson's announcement, Humphrey explained in
greater detail how the President had equivocated over two endings for his
March 31 speech: one that proposed a limit to the bombing; another that
announced his decision not to seek re-election. At the last moment,
Johnson realized he could not run for office and try to end the war in
Vietnam at the same time.

A few days later, on the 4th of April, Martin Luther King, Jr.
was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, at the National
Alliance of Businessmen meeting Humphrey ended his remarks by saying "If we do
recognize the testament in the life and death of Martin Luther King -- if
we do rededicate ourselves to the mission of healing the torment of our
poor and hungry, our deprived and our illiterate -- then truly this
tragedy will be remembered, not as the moment when America lost her faith,
but as the moment when America found her conscience."

Humphrey had been thinking about
announcing his candidacy for the presidency. After King's death, however,
all campaigning stopped. On April 27th Humphrey finally declared his
candidacy in this carefully written twenty minute speech. It was during this
speech that Humphrey, excited about the support of the crowd and filled
with a sense of personal triumph at finally reaching this height in his
career, added the words: "here we are the way politics ought to be in
America, the politics of happiness, politics of purpose, politics of joy."
This positive attitude was not meant to detract from the severe realities
of Dr. King's assassination, domestic rioting in United States cities, or
the casualties and uncertainty of the ten-year Vietnam war. The media,
however, took this phrase out of context and berated Humphrey for being
out of touch with current events.

Humphrey had decided not to enter any primaries, though he made many
speeches during his travels, sometimes even at events that included his
two rivals. McCarthy and Kennedy, meanwhile, competed for similar voters
in primary states, and allowed Humphrey to focus on delegates in
non-primary states and the Southerners, who were not swayed by either of
his rivals. Kennedy had won the Nebraska primary by a majority but then
lost Oregon to McCarthy. Since no Kennedy had ever lost an election
before, it was a terrible blow and imperative that Kennedy win in
California. Humphrey stayed away from California during the primary and
was preparing to give a speech in Colorado Springs when he heard about the
assassination of Bobby
Kennedy after his primary win.

Humphrey refused to
give his speech the next day. Instead he flew back to the east coast for
the funeral and internment and gave this short speech in the Senate on June
6th. He did not campaign for two weeks and was terribly shaken by the
death of another Kennedy, as was his friend and adversary Eugene
McCarthy.

As Humphrey's biographer describes: "that period from Kennedy's death to
the convention in August, this most voluble of American politicians had
almost nothing to say about the issues that troubled his fellow citizens
most . . . He was a man in the middle: tied to a president who dominated
him, pulled by all the forces on the Democratic left that demanded a
candidate who stood for anything different from Nixon" (Hubert
Humphrey: A Biography, p. 341-342).

These speech texts, as well as all of Humphrey's speeches from 1941-1967
are linked to the inventory of his Speech Text
Files. More of Humphrey's speeches will be made available each
month throughout this project. Look for the second half of 1968 in
June!

This project was awarded the support of a $46,000 grant from the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) administered by the
National Archives.

Learn more about how the NHPRC helps preserve records of enduring national historical
value and promotes their public access and interpretation through archival
and documentary programs.

New and Updated Finding Aids - April 2013

Annual or other periodic reports on the
examination of the financial affairs of counties by the State
Auditor. The reports contain comments and recommendations
regarding fiscal procedures; summaries of financial conditions, in
general and with respect to fund transactions, investments, bonded
indebtedness, and federal revenue sharing; balance sheets and
supporting statements; classifications of receipts and
disbursements; notes to financial statements; summaries of fixed
assets, taxable valuations, and tax levies and returns; and names
of officials and verifications of official bonds. In some cases,
the State Auditor prepared a management and compliance letter in
lieu of a full audit report. Some reports for 1970-1972 were done
by the State Auditor's predecessor, the Public Examiner.

Financial statements, audit reports,
balance sheets (often on U.S. Housing and Urban Development
Department forms), or other annual financial reports of housing
and redevelopment authorities in various Minnesota communities. A
few county-level HRAs are included. Most reports cover the
calendar year or quarter-year, but some are for other time
periods.

Financial statements, audit reports,
balance sheets, and related documentation summarizing annual
receipts and expenditures of area mental health programs, park and
recreation boards, public libraries, cable communications boards,
retirement associations, the Duluth-Auditorium Administration
Board, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, the State
Armory Building Commission, and other miscellaneous agencies. A
few were created by the State Auditor or its predecessor, the
Public Examiner.

Financial reports and independent audit
reports for watershed districts, conservation commissions (for
lakes and waterways), flood control commissions, lake improvement
districts, and other water management organizations. Annual
operating reports are often included, also or instead. In a few
instances, the audit reports are by the State Auditor.

Warrants constituting a detailed record
of most state expenditures during the period when the state's
physical and operational infrastructure was being developed,
including itemizations of goods or services received with each
transaction.

Correspondence and financial files, box
office and marketing files, production files, reviews and
programs, staff and production photographs and videotapes, press
releases, clippings, and scrapbooks documenting a community
theater formed in 1969 and disbanded in 1987.

Death certificates and, occasionally,
other documents containing information on deaths and stillbirths
that occurred in Minnesota during the years 1887-1954 (bulk
1908-1915). They were filed with the Health Department after the
official death certificates for the year of death had been
arranged, assigned consecutive certificate numbers, and closed to
additions.

Photocopies of newspaper clippings, legal
documents, and correspondence (1840-1894) from various archival
repositories relating to journalist, newspaper publisher,
abolitionist, and women's rights advocate Jane Grey Swisshelm, as
well as a card file calendar containing information about
newspapers published by Swisshelm or with which she was associated
in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. The
material was compiled by historian Sylvia D. Hoffert in the course
of researching her biography Jane Grey Swisshelm: an
unconventional life (2004).

The original house file of bills acted
upon in the house; also includes bills for special sessions,
resolutions, and concurrent resolutions. The bill files include
any successive versions and engrossments.

An assortment of manuscript items or
groups of related items whose value is largely biographical. They
include biographical and autobiographical sketches and notes,
wedding and baptismal certificates, appointments, letters, brief
reminiscences, school records, clippings, memorial statements, and
other personal memorabilia.

Record of appearances, documents filed,
and actions taken with regard to each case brought before each
day's session of the court, primarily divorces, child support
cases, and paternity cases. A few adoption cases are
included.

Registers of action for civil (1910-1981)
and criminal (1911-1981) cases. Each entry may include the
calendar (case file) number, names of the parties in the case,
papers filed, names of persons subpoenaed, date files, fees, and
remarks.

Case file numbers 1-3144; covering cases
concerning guardianships and commitments of persons due to
insanity, mental illness, senility, and epilepsy. These files were
maintained separately from the main set of probate civil case
files.

Registers of documents filed and actions
taken in individual probate, guardianship, and insanity cases.
Covering case file numbers 1-6046 and 6050-6710, the entries
include title of case, case number, list of documents filed, and
citations to volume and page where selected documents are recorded
(transcribed).

Reports on the examination of the
financial affairs of cities and villages. Some cover a single
fiscal or calendar year, others multiple years. For most
municipalities, there are only single or sporadic reports. More
complete sets are present for many major cities.

Financial statements and reports
(sometimes in the form of newspaper sections) of the following
counties: Anoka, Beltrami, Freeborn, Goodhue, Hennepin, Lake of
the Woods, Le Sueur, Mahnomen, Nicollet, Norman, Otter Tail,
Ramsey, Scott, Stevens, Swift, Todd, Traverse, and Yellow
Medicine. These were created either by or for the county and
submitted to the public examiner's office. This is a very
incomplete set.

New and Updated Catalog Records

Carbon copies of thirteen quarterly
reports submitted by J. C. Baxter, vice president of A. Guthrie
& Co., to J. R. W. Davis, chief engineer of the Great Northern
Railway Company. The reports detail progress on construction of
the Cascade Tunnel, and include narrative descriptions,
photographs, engineering drawings, tunnel profiles, building
diagrams, and camp layouts. The reports were bound by A. Guthrie
into a single volume as a presentation copy to H. L. Mundy,
president of A. Guthrie & Co.

Two typed manuscripts written by Parsons
and entitled The march of Minnesota (circa 1940) and The story of
the United States (1945), and one holographic and two typed
revisions of his Story of Minneapolis (1940s).